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Erratic behavior
Black holes are already one of the most singular phenomena in the universe, but the V404 Cygni pushes the strangeness to the next level.
Instead of spitting plasma jets from its poles, as in most black holes, astronomers captured this black hole nearly 8000 light-years from Earth, in rapidly changing directions – while leaving its gravitational force dragging the fabric of space-time itself.
"We were stunned by what we saw in this system – it was completely unexpected," said researcher Greg Sivakoff in a press release. "The discovery of this astronomical first deepened our understanding of black hole operation and galaxy formation. That tells us a little more about this big question: "How did we get here?"
Wibbly Wobbly
On Monday, Sivakoff and his colleagues at the International Center for Research in Radioastronomy (ICRAR) published a study detailing their analysis of the strange behavior of the V404 Cygni, captured by the Very Long Baseline Array interferometer during the two weeks of 2015.
"Like many black holes, it feeds on a nearby star, removes gas from the star and forms a disc of matter that surrounds the black hole and winds up under the effect of gravity, "said researcher James Miller-Jones in a press release.
"The difference in the V404 Cygni is that we think that the disc of material and the black hole are misaligned," he continued. "This seems to cause an oscillation of the inner part of the disc like a top and the projection of jets in different directions as it changes orientation."
Adaptable astronomers
As the V404 Cygni did not behave as other black holes observed, the ICRAR team could not use proven methods to examine it.
"Generally, radio telescopes produce a single image after several hours of observation," researcher Alex Tetarenko said in a press release. "But these jets were changing so fast that, in a four-hour image, we just saw a blur. It was like trying to take a picture of a waterfall with a shutter speed of a second. "
But by combining 103 images of the black hole, each about 70 seconds, in one film, astronomers discovered that they could observe the rapid changes of the jets – and they will now know what to do if they detect another black hole featuring as follows: strangely as V404 Cygni in the future.
READ MORE: SPINNING BLACK HOLE PULVERIZES LIGHT SPEED PLASMA CLOUDS IN SPACE [ICRAR]
More on black holes: The first picture of the black hole is even more surprising when you zoom out
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